Having read the W3C Patent Policy Framework the following thoughts come to
mind:
I do not see any provision that would prevent a corporation from misusing
the RAND licencing terms to engineer a situation where the whole Web or
even the whole Internet would become dependent upon their patents, and
subsequently milking them. Given that this is precisely what every large
corporation backing the proposal has in mind, the danger is not remote.
Given that the whole question of software patents is open to debate at this
time, and given the utterly absurd patents granted by the US patent office,
it seems an inappropriate time to forge ahead in a nebulous area awaiting
clarification by developed countries.
Regards,
Peter Adamson
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Rochma Consulting Limited
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email: padamson@rochma.co.uk